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Makeup line launches makeovers for the dead

London-based makeup line Illamasqua has paired with funeral home Leverton & Sons Ltd. to offer make up services for the recently deceased.

London-based make up house has paired with funeral home Leverton & Sons Ltd. to offer make up services for the recently deceased. (Craig Hill)

“The whole thing came about because some girlfriends of mine, who are very much in to the full-on, nighttime, very theatrical Illamasqua look, said to me ‘Joe, you’ve just got to promise me one thing, when I die in my coffin I want to look like this,” said Joe Corre, the joint managing director at Illamasqua.

And by “this” they didn’t mean a healthy natural glow.

“They wanted the full Cleopatra look” Corre told the Star.

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According to Corre, Illamasqua’s funeral package is the latest addition to the increased popularity of elaborate funerals.

“Companies are offering packages where you can plan your own funeral with the top stallions pulling your casket or a double-decker bus if you want,” Corre explained.

And makeup is part of that final act of self-expression.

“You wouldn’t expect Cleopatra in her coffin to have a very natural look. You would expect her to be made up to look like the queen that she was and to wear make up in the way that we would recognize her,” Corre, the man who built lingerie brand Agent Provocateur, added.

The son of designer Vivienne Westwood and Sex Pistol’s manager Malcolm McLaren, Corre reflects that the elaborate add-ons at his father’s funeralmade an occasion when people are normally crying into their beers at the pub into “a celebration of life rather than a token to death.”

Illamasqua’s makeup artists underwent training at a Leverton’s funeral home before the Final Act of Self-Expression package was launched. Besides testing who was psychologically up to the task, Illamasqua had to ensure their product could meet the beauty demands of dead.

The skin of the recently deceased expels so much moisture that car paint is commonly used to accentuate their features, says Corre. But Illamasqua’s base in heavy theatrical makeup means it stays pasted to the faces of the dead — at least long enough to get them in the ground.

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“The biggest point (about doing the makeup of the deceased) is about the base,” he said. “Of course, there are other issues too, without getting into the gory details … there are all kind of horrible ways people can end their life.”

Those who sign up for the package undergo a consultation with Illamasqua’s make up artists to decide on their look for their final appearance in public. These designs are then held at the funeral home and included in their will.

Starting at £450 ($700), no one has yet signed up for the package, but Corre says he has received numerous inquiries from celebrities and those in the makeup industry as well the intrigued general members of the public.

While currently only offered in London, Corre and his team are willing to travel for a fee.

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